The technology combines home visits by secondary caregivers with Glass and the video technologies of swyMed, a provider of video telemedicine technologies.

You may have heard that Google has decided to make its Glass product available exclusively for Enterprise purposes, with healthcare being one of the verticals especially interested in using it. And so Trinity Health announced its intent to test technology that combines home visits by secondary caregivers with Glass Enterprise Edition (Glass), and the advanced video technologies of swyMed, a provider of video telemedicine technologies. The program will help Trinity Health determine how the technologies might be used to increase access to primary care physicians and advance people-centered care.

"There is no doubt the technologies are very exciting, but it's the promise of being able to provide improved access to better, more people-centered care that is most energizing to those of us working in Trinity Health's Innovation Program," Anna Marie Butrie, VP of Innovation at Trinity Health, said in a statement. "This project combines old-fashioned house calls and high-technology to help patients thrive."

The combination of Glass and swyMed's video telehealth solutions makes it possible for secondary providers to do assessments of recently released and chronic care patients — in real time and in the comfort of the patient's home — without the burden of having to hold a video camera or a tablet.

When the clinical simulation begins, it will engage former patients as volunteers, and connect them with medical, nursing and pharmacy students previously trained within the Loyola University Health System. These students, overseen by nurse leaders or practicing physicians, will bring the technologies directly to patients during their high-tech/high-touch home visits. They will also serve as a meaningful link between the patient and their physician.

The clinical simulation of the technologies will start in late summer, taking place at the Loyola University Health System in Maywood, Illinois, where the organizations are hoping to create a solution that could potentially help address challenges including future physician shortages predicted by the Association of American Medical Colleges.